


Old Hungers

by SenkoWakimarin



Series: Let Them Eat Flesh [11]
Category: The Punisher (TV 2017)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Zombies, M/M, Vaguely Eroticised Cannibalism
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-16
Updated: 2019-08-16
Packaged: 2020-09-01 23:24:18
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,046
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20266234
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SenkoWakimarin/pseuds/SenkoWakimarin
Summary: There's a certain way David looks at Frank.





	Old Hungers

**Author's Note:**

> Zombie AU, I'm home. This really reads best, I think, if you read the rest of the series first, but it stands on it's own feet pretty well.

There's a certain way David has of looking at Frank sometimes, a certain burning consideration, that slams Frank back to where they were two years ago. Stuck together by circumstance, refusing to admit how deep any of the things they felt ran, that damp, chilly basement. Keeping a knife sharp enough it hardly hurt to use, letting David feed from him. 

Frank has two ragged scars on his back, one on each shoulder blade, to remember that time by. He's got a little ring of teeth marks, a scar in the shape of David's bite, sunk into the skin over his collarbone. He touches those marks sometimes, through his shirt, always hidden and far from the most dramatic scars on him, and thinks about how David had always, to some capacity, needed him.

It was surprising, every time, to realize how good it felt to be needed. To find himself necessary in someone else's life.

When David looks at him like that now, there's a tiny part of Frank that shrinks and quivers, prey urging him to go to ground. That part of Frank, that self preservation part, came with the blood transfusion, came with the hunger and the cold and exhaustion he can't seem to sleep away. There's no reason why David would attack him -- he'd eating regular, for one thing, and Frank is infected too, so it's not like he could even get what he needed from Frank now.

It's strange, the way Frank likes that thin sense of fear. In a fight, he could take David. Emotional, romantic entanglements aside, Frank outweighs him, out guns him, and knows how to take a punch and keep swinging. 

There's other ways David could hurt him though. David gets closer to him than just about anyone else in the entire world, David sees him at his weakest. David's filed into that place in Frank's brain that lets him curl close in sleep, lets him touch without warning, lets him argue without Frank losing his temper. David is _ safe _ to Frank, and that's dangerous because anyone close enough to be thought of as _ safe _could turn around and stab him in the back.

Two years ago, tangled together on the shitty camp bed they'd shared in that basement, Frank had thought about that. He'd been uninfected, sharing his body heat to encourage David's system to warm up, except that had gone up in flames somehow and they'd started sleeping together. And David, buried in Frank's body and smothering his own moans against Frank's neck, had bitten him. He'd bitten Frank gently, careful not to break the skin, and Frank thought -- he thought _ maybe we've always been like this_, he thought _ maybe we belong like this_. 

He'd asked David to bite harder. Turn the press of teeth to a real bite, felt his own pulse skyrocket at that, at the danger of it, the shrill, tinny mental siren of DANGER! and he'd cum thinking about how David would never really hurt him. 

David never had. 

Frank has hurt David. He's punched him, he's treated him as an enemy, tortured him. He was the last person David should trust so deeply, should want around, and yet David had gone above and beyond what Frank would ever have asked of him just to keep Frank alive. And Frank had managed to go on hurting him after that, trying to kill his own desire for... for companionship, for touch, because it seemed wrong to him that David should get his life back, his family, and still want Frank.

They've talked about these things. They've moved past them, Frank thinks, as much as two adults living the kind of lives they lead can move past the hurts others put on them. 

And yet, there's a certain way David looks at Frank, sharp-eyed consideration, that sends a thrill of fear through Frank, makes him bite back the urge to bolt. 

That's a game they've both found they like to play, when Frank can make himself ask for it. David has long legs and Frank's seen him run when he wants to get somewhere. In a pursuit, Frank thinks David could catch him seventy-five percent of the time, and in their game he'd say David manages to get hold of him more like nine times of every ten. The idea of David chasing him down and doing whatever he likes if he catches him has strong appeal, a way of twisting that fear into something Frank wants to feel. 

Most of the time, he sees that look on David's face and has to pause, just long enough to see who's around, assess the situation, before forcing that fear away so he can step in close, pull David in, and whisper in his ear. Tell him where they should go, tell him what he wants David to do to him, tell him to get it together because they've got work to do. It depends on the moment, but doing the latter is a dreaded task. 

Two years ago, David had needed Frank because David was going to starve himself to death if Frank didn't step in. David had been depressed and lost in his own head, afraid of Frank deciding he didn't want to help a _ zombie _after all. Two years ago, Frank had pinned David down and gotten him to understand that Frank wasn't going anywhere, he knew what David needed, and he was willing to help him get it, however it needed to happen. 

Now, they're living in the real world again. Both infected, but no longer forced to hide from a government bent on killing them, and so despite the implication of the popular slur, they're as alive as anyone. David gets his meat delivered just like Frank does, straight to his door by the CDC. He doesn't need Frank to pull him out of his head, he doesn't need Frank to make sure he eats, he doesn't _ need _Frank for anything.

But he keeps him here. He wants him around, and Frank knows the best way he could ensure that David _ stays _safe would be to leave, but he can't. He only wants to run if David's going to chase him.

He only wants to run if David will catch him.


End file.
